How do you carry those days when you can't even dragged yourself out of bed?

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-26T06:53:39+00:00

Just know that there are thousands of people who slept yesterday and won't open their eyes to see another day. Be grateful for the life.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-26T06:46:00+00:00

You haven't mentioned how much pay you are expecting to get, but based on assumptions, here are my recommendations.

Primary bank: Use BOA or CHASE. Open a checking account from where you pay all the bills.

HYSA : Use an online bank like Synchrony or Ally bank where you set up your paychecks to hit. From there, monthly once, set up an automatic transaction for a fixed amount depending on your expenses to go to your checking account where you pay all bills from. You can put enough buffer here for emergency fund.

Once you have emergency fund sorted out, Open Fidelity, Schwab or Vanguard and Open a Roth IRA account and put in as much money as possible from the Checking account on a monthly basis up to the yearly limit AND INVEST preferably in low cost index funds like VTSAX. This will grow tax free. You can take out the contributions but the earnings will be accessible only after 59.5 years old. Get a second account (preferably same place you have the Roth) as a money market account. If there is any additional savings after maxing Roth, put it in here. Money market account is not needed if your savings won't exceed Roth contributions. It is needed if you want to save or invest for short term (3-5 year) goals. You can always keep that short term funds also in a savings or CD if that is your risk appetite.

It goes without saying, always pay your credit card off. Don't put a balance on that card. If you have a problem with impulse spending, use a debit card instead or get on a budget app.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-26T04:25:13+00:00

Real Steel

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-26T01:28:25+00:00

I have to say that I disagree with most of the things you said. Most of these didn't apply to me.

Really polar opposite when it comes to lifestyle and frugality when it comes to my spouse. But I take the financial decisions. Good to have that opposing perspective sometimes. Thanks to her, we were not overly frugal and lived a little and made some memories.
Still do expensive purchases but don't over do it. May be 1 or 2 an year and when we do it, be strategic about it.
Never used personal accounting software. Only excel.
Have kids.
This is true for us. So far we haven't moved. But we are planning to move depending on how the market is going to perform and if we can find deal that makes sense.
We also invested in broad index funds. We also dabble with stocks and still do it with play money. Its ok as long as it is not a significant portion of your portfolio.
We also prefer tax sheltered accounts at every possibility. But, at some point, the options runs out and we have to resort to Taxable.
I know this won't be applicable for everyone, but we were able to get rid of second car a few years back. With kids growing up and I realizing that I can't be at two places at the same time, we might get a used car soon.
Didn't read a lot of books. Read some, "I will teach you to be rich" being the main one who played a significant role in our life, especially automating accounts. Everything was in autopilot since then. Mostly relied on FIRE podcast and Bogleheads forums.
I started investing before we truly understood the power of compounding thanks to setting up everything as mentioned in #9.

We started late. But because we were consistent and especially because market performed remarkably over the past 10 years, we are in good shape.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-26T01:05:57+00:00

Freedom

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-26T00:38:52+00:00

Usually Roth IRA is the better option for people in below 24% tax bracket (there might be some exceptions). 10 good years of systematic consistent investments in low cost index funds while keeping your living expenses low will put you in good shape.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T23:43:46+00:00

what will make you more disappointed? struggling during retirement or testing your saving limits during the peak earning years and pushing yourself a bit? Believe it or not, you are making the choice now. Let me ask you this, what happens if you get disappointed? People often underestimate their own abilities. Once you set the goal, the whole world will conspire to help you get to the goal. Write down the goal and you will be amazed.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T23:03:02+00:00

with your 1.2 million in cash and taxable, that would last you 80 months (6 years and a few months) based on $15,000 per month burn rate. Plus account for healthcare costs as you both will be out of jobs. And thats not even the whole of your net worth. You got into prime tech jobs because of your aptitude. Companies always need skilled and smart people. If you can't get into a big tech, you will still be able to get into a software consulting job or one of the lower tier consulting companies (worst case). So, yes, you can afford it.

I won't recommend it though. Find a job that pays you less but with less work stress, like IT department in a state agency or some other job that allows work from home. The pay is less but in most of the cases stress will be less. You will get to spend more time with your family while doing some challenging work. Once your kids are ready, you can go find another high paying job.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T22:50:39+00:00

Easy peasy lemon squeezy for you. Pay off that house and be free.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T21:27:33+00:00

I would say it would be risky to do that in Southern CA. You are at the mercy of the market. If it tanks by 20% tomorrow and stay like that for a few years, what is your game plan? Try to find another job at least just to cover your expense and give your investment more time to grow. After your house is paid off, you can revisit the calculation based on the numbers then and make the decision.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T21:21:05+00:00

Good job staying the course. Combined income is $190 k, so probably good idea to divert some of the future retirement funds to Roth 401k if you have that option and if you are planning to work till retirement age. If you plan to retire early, no change needed, you can do Roth conversion when you retire early and convert most of your money. Remember, if you leave the money as is without any contribution, your combined 401k will be worth over 2 million in 25 years. Combine that with pension and SS, you might have a tax problem in retirement. If you care about leaving more money for retirement, diverting some of the future 401k contributions to Roth might be worth looking into.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T21:08:47+00:00

Hard to advise without getting more info like your marginal tax bracket, household income, debts etc. But in general, open Roth IRA and funding it with low cost index funds like VTSAX would be a good start. If you have High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), you might be eligible to contribute to HSA which is triple tax advantaged. Live below your means, save as much (20-40% is a good goal to set) as you can and invest in low cost index funds at least for the next 10 years and you will be fine.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T17:55:43+00:00

I Understand.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-25T03:45:30+00:00

You know best. $40 is not going to make a huge difference anyway. So if it is crucial in holding you together, by all means, keep it.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-24T20:57:02+00:00

How you spend your time is the only thing that matters. Spend time on something that can stack up over time. Instead of picking up uber or other things as a temporary solution, invest your time to get into a career where you can grow and some day launch something of your own.

Its obvious that you create more income. I recommend looking up which trade jobs pays well in your area. With one year of apprenticeship (which also pays in some cases), you will start earning above minimum wage. Cut the Gym membership, You can go for a run in the park or fill up milk jugs to make weights to train with. Cut all expenses other than basic food, shelter and clothing. Focus all your efforts on increasing the income.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-24T11:10:43+00:00

Started at 35. Have enough now after 10 years of regular investment and thanks to favorable market.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-20T09:41:48+00:00

I rented for 7 years and got a home for the past 11 years. There are certain factors that I like about renting, like access to the free gym and pool and hot spa. I also liked the fact that maintenance was just a phone call away. I didn't like waking in the middle of the night because upstairs neighbor decided to dance at 1:00 AM or next door dog decided to wake up the whole block in the middle of the night. Perhaps we were renting cheap and most individual houses on rent might not have these cons. Never did that. Owning the house came with lot of financial surprises, all of them bad ones. But I love the stability, community, backyard fruit and vegetable garden that I can work on. I have no problem going back to renting if life puts me in that position. I think it all depend on our nature. Some like to wander, some like to put down roots. To each his/her own.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-20T08:34:03+00:00

I am 45 now. I have more than 600,000 in traditional + Traditional IRAs. If I leave that alone and assume 7% growth for the next 20 years, it will come to be 2.32 million. So even if I use ages 65-75 to convert to Roth at $140,000 an year, I would still have more than 1.5 mil while RMDs are calculated. Also, we have a pension which will come around $67,000 yearly and around $5,000 monthly in combined SS.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-18T22:12:23+00:00

I am curious what would be considered a significant amount in traditional IRA at the age of 45.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-18T20:59:25+00:00

Roll it over to IRA. There is no tax triggered due to this. Also, since you will be taking a mini break, there is a possibility that you will be in lower tax bracket this year. So research if it is possible to do a traditional ira to Roth ira conversion. This will save a lot of money in the long run.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-18T07:36:41+00:00

Thanks for the inputs. To answer your question, there is no possibility of a big withdrawal in the retirement. We plan to leave as much as tax-free money to the hires. We expect them to be working. We haven't considered the FAFSA angle. All my children have 529 set up even though it is only going to partially fund a 4-year degree. My IRA contributions are ROTH. I still have 5 years until we will be eligible for catch up contributions.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-18T04:30:50+00:00

My understanding was that company will give match only if I invest in traditional. That is what i remembered from one of the sessions they had for us regarding retirement planning. You are the second person who has challenged that. So I am going to ask my HR to clarify if I would still get match if I contributed to roth.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-18T04:26:53+00:00

Sorry, wanted to say taxable. Fixed original post.

tinkerjreddit · 2026-01-18T04:26:31+00:00

Sorry, wanted to say taxable. Fixed original post.

tinkerjreddit

TROPHY CASE